CHARLESTON – A former psychiatric hospital worker says she was the victim of retaliation and disability discrimination.
Tiffany J. Johnson of Clarksburg filed her complaint October 16 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the West Virginia Department of Health Facilities and Saunders Staffing Inc. The WVDHF is a successor agency to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
According to the complaint, Johnson worked as a health services worker at William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston from January 2022 to May 2, 2023. She was employed jointly by Sharpe Hospital and Saunders.
Johnson says Sharpe Hospital continually failed to ensure patient safety and had a “culture of retaliation.” The facility was cited for 73 regulatory violations by state and federal agencies regarding patient abuse, unsafe environment, mismanagement, improper governance and substandard quality assurance from August 2022 to January 2023.
The complaint says CEO Patrick W. Ryan and other managers created, fostered and condoned the unsafe environment by improper vetting of caregivers and staff.
Johnson cites a few examples in the complaint, including a staffer and former MMA fighter who was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, a staff member reported for sexually harassing a co-worker who later forced a patient to have multiple involuntary sexual encounters months later and a rehired contract nurse who made sexual advances toward a patient and had been convicted of enticing a minor to drink alcohol.
In addition, Johnson says the DHHR failed to accommodate her medical restrictions.
Following an emergency hysterectomy in May 2022, she had to take medical leave for four weeks. In August 2022, she says she began experiencing significant back pain that resulted in paralysis in her left leg. She was diagnosed with multiple herniated discs and Cauda Equina Syndrome, which required her to undergo emergency back surgery.
Johnson was released to return to work with light duty restrictions in November 2022. But she says supervisor Tonya Tanner-Blake refused to submit the restrictions to nursing administration because Johnson was a contract employee. She also says she was told she would be terminated if she turned in a light duty note. But she says the staff schedule showed other health service workers and nurses were accommodated with light duty work.
Johnson says her back surgery ultimately failed, and she is now limited in major life activities.
Johnson says her contract was scheduled to end on May 28, 2023. On April 15, 2023, she was told her contract was not being renewed because she had called off work too much. She says her days for medical treatment were counted.
Two days later, she says she overheard two staffers bragging about abusing a patient. She says she tried to report the issue to Adult Protective Services but was unable to do so. She says she then called Gov. Jim Justice’s office, which made the report to APS on her behalf.
She told APS she suspected the same patient had been abused at least three other times, and she also reported it to the director of Disability Rights of West Virginia. She says she also posted TikTok videos complaining about the abuse.
The next day, Johnson says she was suspended for allegedly failing to report the abuse she had just reported. She says DHHR then changed the reason to failure to report the abuse through the hospital rather than directly to government officials.
She says a letter from Ryan attempted to silence her by threatening termination if she did not “limit discussion of this matter to those who are conducting the investigation.” She also says Connie Saunders, president of Saunders Staffing, directed her not to contact the hospital.
On May 2, 2023, Saunders told Johnson the DHHR threatened to file harassment charges if she didn’t stop asking about her suspension case before terminating her.
Johnson accuses the defendants of disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, retaliation, reprisal, aiding, abetting and retaliatory discharge in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act, the state Whistleblower Law and substantial public policy.
She says she has suffered loss of dignity, embarrassment, humiliation, aggravation and emotional distress as well as lost wages and benefits.
Johnson seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. She is not seeking reinstatement at this time.
She is being represented by Michael P. Addair and Kurt E. Entsminger of Addair Entsminger in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 24-C-1148